Mike Portnoy

I love Mike Portnoy. His style is very complex and textured. I know there are better drummer than him, for example Virgil Donati but they play diferent styles and can't be compared.

I see Portnoy as my musical father. When I started drumming the drummer that really shocked me was him. I studied him a LOT, I have all of his videos. He has done a lot for me and many people. My creativity grew a lot when listening to DT.

I don't think tere's a more tecnical rock band than DT. There are a lot of good ones but not better than DT. They have a special quimistry and flow that mekes the so special.
 
Portnoy is easily, hands down the best thing about DT. Unfortunately I don't think he's good enough to save them, either. I don't rate his technique, but what really bugs me about him dawned on me earlier: it's all tab drumming. Tab drumming? What the hell does that mean? Rhetorical questions aside, I just think his drumming all sounds like the kind of stuff you would design to write out in tab form: it has no serious amount of dynamics, no changing articulations on each surface, and most importantly it's all aligned to a metronomic grid in time and each note is only about its attack - there's no consideration of sustain, tone or space between notes.

If you listen to, say, Brazillian music you'll hear various things at work. One common phrase used is commonly written as a 1e(+)a phrase (where the "and" is not played) in 16ths, but which is actually played closer to a mix of 16th notes and triplets. It has a really nice feel and shape, and while it can be mathematically described it doesn't fit exactly into either a triplet or 16th note conception. You can't really tab this stuff accurately. It also has a lot of dynamics and articulation, and there are things like note lengths coming into play.

For me this difference between dynamic, articulated drumming with fluid, engaging time and the metronomic plodding stuff you hear from Portnoy is like the difference between a website designed using tables (i.e: lots of right angles everywhere) and a painting on canvass. One has been jazzed up to the best of the ability of the artist working inside serious restrictive logical requirements, the other is total freedom and a lot more human and expressive.

If you insist on playing everything as attacks written on a grid then there aren't a lot of ways to make that interesting - changing the dimensions of the grid is almost the only one, which is why Portnoy plays so much stuff in varied time signatures in DT. But really changing the dimensions of a grid doesn't make the stuff you build on that grid any less square and uninteresting, at least not for me.

As for bands with similar degrees of complexity to DT... there are many. I'd argue that Secret Chiefs 3 (just for one) is considerably MORE complex, but it's a very different kind of music so we'll ignore that. Staying inside the whole heavy/progressive/technical realm I'd have to just point to Fredrik Thordendal's solo album again, and Morgen Agren's loose, funky, fluid drumming over the complexity in that particular environment. That's NOT tab drumming...
 
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MP will forever be one of my top infulences.

I feel blessd that I can keep up with his playing when trying it myself.
 
mike portnoy is definately one of my favorite drummers, and a top influence, but i think as many people have said before in this thread, its silly to call him the greatest drummer in the world as lots of people most surely do. i think the one thing portnoy is great at is that he fits his genre of music wonderfully. to say hes the greatest drummer in the world is stupid, but to say hes one of the greatest drummers (if not the greatest) to ever play his specific genre of music(prog metal kinda stuff) wouldnt be a bad assumption to make. sure there are better musicians like neil peart, but his band was completely different from dream theater from what ive heard (all of this is just my humble opinion however)
mike was the first drummer i really liked to listen to after being a travis fanboy for months(shudder) and his playing has taught me a lot of stuff, and ive learned a lot from watching him and listening to his band.
sure he may not be the fastest drummer in the world, he may not have the best technique, but when you think about it, drummers like hime are entertainers, and mike does a damn good job
 
If anyone has seen that DVD when DT play live in Japan, not sure what it is called, they know that this guy is insane. He is by far one of the best drummers out there.
 
kornslipknot said:
If anyone has seen that DVD when DT play live in Japan, not sure what it is called, they know that this guy is insane. He is by far one of the best drummers out there.
i agree i was just saying its silly to consider ANY drummer regardless of who they are the best drummer in the world, because certain drummers are better at certain things than others
i dont really think peart is a better overall drummer than portnoy, but i think pearts compositional skills are much better than portnoys
maybe "better musician" wast the right way to put it
 
Mike's playing on the new Dream Theater DVD is fantastic!
 
Robin said:
Mike's playing on the new Dream Theater DVD is fantastic!

I bought it yesterday. Its called DT Score/20 year anniversary. He is like Peart where 95% is played exactly likethe cd. His drums sound great. The whole band is incredible. 4 hours long. Half w/an orchestra. It was filmed in New York 4-1-06.
 
All I can say is he is an incredible drummer. If you dont like his drumming or the band, you cant deny that he is a great drummer. And the band is amazing. Some stuff can get old, but as a whole it is incredible to see how tight and in sync the band is.
Mike is a master of odd times. Like him or not what he does is very challenging and exciting to watch/listen to IMO. And has taken years of dedication to learn.
 
Mike Portnoy is definetly one of my favourite drummer. He's playing is really great! It just fits perfectly in DT and his technique...
But what is best of his playing is SOUND.Damn it is so good! I feel I could eat his snare drum when he hits it:D..and his shoes and imago is cool.
 
I like Portnoy as well, he is a great drummer. He is very fast and have a brilliant technique.

But I miss Jeff Porcaro, he was one of the times best drummer. Very very good
 
kornslipknot said:
If anyone has seen that DVD when DT play live in Japan, not sure what it is called, they know that this guy is insane. He is by far one of the best drummers out there.

i think ur talking about live at the Budokan...its pretty good, I dont personally own it but i have watched it a few times.

Just recently this year i have started to get into dream theater and mike portnoy, i like his work, his timing and technique IMO is pretty fantastic but still i feel hes not the best out there.....relitivly close though...
 
Is the DVD out in Canada? I saw an ad for it in Modern Drummer, but I can't find it in the retail shops.
 
which guy would I call to choose with a great perspective on drumming with a sharped sense of musicality? who´se drumming drives with grace and power with such musicians as the rest of Dream Theater´s members?

Yeah! Mike Portnoy :)
 
AnaAmu said:
But I miss Jeff Porcaro, he was one of the times best drummer. Very very good
Ehhh so? There is already a Jeff Porcaro thread, what has Jeff got to do with MP?
 
Like most people, I'm sure, I register here and immediately head to my favorite drummer's thread. :)

Mike Portnoy was the guy who got me so avidly into playing. My first DT album was "Awake," and as soon as I heard it, I was thinking, "I want to play this." So I started playing drums more frequently, and now here I am today.

The most "complex" song I can play by MP is "Instrumedley" from the Live at Budokan DVD. I'm working on Dance of Eternity.
 
He is My favorite Drummer For sure! In my opinion, the best prog drummers around. I think his DVD, Liquid drum theater, is one of the most entertaining drum videos out there. The quality and Video angles he uses are soo sweet. He got me into the Double bass drum fills and beats. Alot of people do not like the music, but like said beofer, you cannot deny his skill!
 
Portnoy is Dream Theater, especially live.

Portnoy really gets into it. Puts on a good show for a drummer.

The rest of the band should just get beds and lie down. They just stand in one place, and do not put on any type of "show". Very boring to watch them live. I enjoy listening to them more than watching them (this doesn't apply to Mr. Portnoy!).

I suggest they change the band name to Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater!

Now, I know there will be many people who claim the music is so hard to play, and they need to concentrate. However, many technically great musicians give a good show. Petrucci, Myung and Rudes are great musicians, but do not play to entertain the crowd. Yngwie, Vai, Sheehan, Harris and others give the fans technical greatness and showmanship.
 
yea Portnoy is so much about the show, if you've ever watched a dvd with the option of showing only him playing: he does a lot of silly little things for pure show, sometimes plays ghost notes against his head, stick twirling etc.

Not to mention that they're songs are rediculously complicated as it is.
DT was one of the things that got me into drumming seriously, it's the source of the limited knowledge I have of odd time signatures.
I remember laying in bed, sick and listening to Octavarium or LTE, which is essentially DT and slowly untying the knots in the music.
Now I don't like it as much anymore, while I still think its brilliant and complicated, somehow its magic has disappeared......maybe I just know most of the songs that well.
 
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